Page 341 - the-odyssey

twenty of them went to the fountain for water, and the oth-
ers set themselves busily to work about the house. The men
who were in attendance on the suitors also came up and
began chopping firewood. By and by the women returned
from the fountain, and the swineherd came after them with
the three best pigs he could pick out. These he let feed about
the premises, and then he said good-humouredly to Ulyss-
es, ‘Stranger, are the suitors treating you any better now, or
are they as insolent as ever?’
‘May heaven,’ answered Ulysses, ‘requite to them the
wickedness with which they deal high-handedly in another
man’s house without any sense of shame.’
Thus did they converse; meanwhile Melanthius the goat-
herd came up, for he too was bringing in his best goats for the
suitors’ dinner; and he had two shepherds with him. They
tied the goats up under the gatehouse, and then Melanthius
began gibing at Ulysses. ‘Are you still here, stranger,’ said
he, ‘to pester people by begging about the house? Why can
you not go elsewhere? You and I shall not come to an under-
standing before we have given each other a taste of our fists.
You beg without any sense of decency: are there not feasts
elsewhere among the Achaeans, as well as here?’
Ulysses made no answer, but bowed his head and brood-
ed. Then a third man, Philoetius, joined them, who was
bringing in a barren heifer and some goats. These were
brought over by the boatmen who are there to take people
over when any one comes to them. So Philoetius made his
heifer and his goats secure under the gatehouse, and then
went up to the swineherd. ‘Who, Swineherd,’ said he, ‘is this

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